I bought this camera because I wanted a compact camera with more than 4x zoom and 8+ MP. I was going to buy the Panasonic DMC-Z1 (I think that's the model); But that camera has been discontinued in favor of the DMC-FH20. I was not happy at first; but I sure am happy now. DMC-FH20 is a great don't need to think camera. It's everything I needed and it takes great pictures too. It's small and light; comes in array of colors (I got cool blue). I would recommend this to everyone looking for a compact camera. I was also considering Canon cameras too; but you can't get the 8x and up zoom for less than $250. Plus, the reviews on Canon's haven't been so great lately. I have a lot of friends who have Canons from a couple of years ago and they are happy. But the new Canons are the ones with the less than stellar reviews. This is a great camera and I have no regrets about this purchase. Oh yeah, the price is great too; I've seen it for as little as $160. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH20 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue)
I got this to replace a 3 MP Kodak bought 8 years ago.
You need at least a class 6 card to take HD video, so I also bought a 16 GB Class 6 SDHC card made by Sandisk. (I don't think there's any additional benefit to buying Class 10 or SDXC with this camera, but it may speed up "Burst Mode" continuous shooting.)
I added a Panasonic-branded high capacity second battery, and a suitable hard case. Got these through Amazon partners. There may be issues with non-Panasonic batteries. Read the reviews!
I went for a Panasonic camera because they're the only company using optical image stabilizing (OIS). I've used this previously in a camcorder and it's nicer than digital image stabilizing. It's a correction in the lens itself, not a cheap fudge. Given that it's an optical correction, a shaky had doesn't mean blurry images. I've used this camera handheld on full zoom with artificial light, and the image was still incredibly sharp right down to the pixel level.
This camera takes great pictures. I love the speed it powers up. Taking multiple shots, if you press, release, press, & so on, the camera has to reanalyse, refocus, etc. between shots. By holding down the shutter release button, you activate "Burst Mode", where the scene analysis is done only once, and the camera stores pictures every 1.5 s or so. This may be where a Class 10 SDHC or SDXC card comes in, but I don't have the funds to test this theory!
The battery lasts several sessions between charges. Before I used it, I was concerned that I'd have to have three or four batteries with me on vacation, but it turns out two will be more than enough; plus, as others have pointed out, they charge relatively quickly. (I was using high capacity NiMH AAs in the Kodak, and found I had to charge almost daily, and take alkaline backups with me.)
I like the picture taking modes with automatic tagging. Quick access to flash and macro.
Downsides:
1. The decidedly stupid toggling between movie and photo mode -- seriously, put another switch on there guys.
2. The now ubiquitous nonstandard USB cable, so when (not "if") you misplace the cable among all your other USB cables, you have to use a card reader to get pictures and movies off. Okay, so it doubles as an AV cable. So... seriously, who uses AV out from a camera? Drop the gimmick, or put MiniDP on there as well.
4 years ago when I purchased my very first camera, It was a Canon and it cost me above $400 bucks for everything and the camera was great for me at the time. When I was looking at the canon's, they were still pretty pricey but the quality from before is lacking in the newer ones. A friend of mine has a Panasonic Lumix and I absolutely loved the quality of the camera and the pictures it took which led me to do some research on the Panasonic digital cameras and what I found was pleasantly surprising. All of their cameras have very good reviews (4 stars or higher) and they have a pretty decent selection of them as well. I decided on this Panasonic Lumix FH-20 blue(blue is my favorite color) and I am very glad that I decided to purchase this camera because this camera is amazing!! The quality of the pictures and videos is great! I have taken several pictures (I will upload a few) and I am beyond happy with the purchase. I'm still a little new when it comes to using all the features but when I get the hang of it and become a pro, I will upload some more pictures. Oh, and the HD video is great!! I saved the videos to my desktop which I have plugged into my HDTV and it was as if I was watching something that had been professionally video taped in 720p:-)
I own a DCM-FZ30 that I like very much, however it isn't a camera that I could put in my pocket. Since I am used to Panasonic's menus and features I decided to say with Panasonic for a pocket camera.
Things I don't like about the camera are few. There is no manual exposure mode on this camera. Sometimes you have to make the camera take the picture you want, but with auto only modes, you can only get the photo the camera thinks you want. There is no convenient mode knob on the top of the camera, instead there is a small button next to the LCD screen. The LCD doesn't have a raised rim around it to protect the LCD from scratches.
Things I like about the camera are numerous. The image quality is great. The 14.1 mega-pixel image size allows a lot of cropping and still retains a sharp image. The image stabilization is very good. To test it, I shot a photo of under the dash in my truck in the iA mode with no flash. Shutter speed was 1/8 and the focal length was 28mm. The image is sharp enough to read the writing on the wires and air lines. Normally I have found digital zoom to be a joke. On my older point and shoot cameras, it was nothing more than image cropping in the viewfinder and resulted in a smaller image saved. The digital zoom on the FH20 actually digitally zooms and enhances the image. The digitally zoomed image is a little noisy compared to a similar optically zoomed image, but image quality is still good. I didn't use a tripod on either image and that might have made some difference. Still I was well pleased at the sharpness of a 800mm equivalent hand held image at 1/100th shutter speed.
Low light images are good, but not great. But I haven,t seen to many low light photos that were great even in film cameras. With film cameras, you had film grain that showed in low light, with digital you get "noise." Same concept, different name, basically there isn't enough light for the film or CCD depending on the mode.
The videos also surprised me with their quality. They are in a wide screen format and while not quite up to HD standards the videos I shot still looked good when played on my 50" 720p plasma TV. Unless you are shooting a play or a sporting event, the 8 minutes length of the video files should be adequate.
Batery life is also very good. Having used cameras that used AA batteries like they were potato chips, the battery in this camera seems to last quite a long time, and the recharge time of about 1 hour is quite fast. I ordered a spare battery with mine which is a little longer lasting than the stock battery.
On a 8GB SD card you can get over 1500 images which is like having a 35mm with 62 rolls of film. With the 4:3 format fast becoming a thing of the past, I have my camera set to the 35mm frame format of 3:2.
For me, the camera was well worth the price and I would recommend this camera to anyone. - Panasonic - Point And Shoot - Digital Camera - Panasonic Lumix'
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